Chance to tender

I NOTE with dismay that the Tropicana will be an eyesore for at least another year due to some tendering process that has apparently been forced on North Somerset Council by the European Union:

Every member state will, it seems, be given the chance to tender for the work when there appears to be a perfectly reasonable proposal already on the table from a local business which is keen to start work this summer.

Here in the UK we appear to constantly be being told what to do by the EU and it seems to me, unlike other members of the Union, we just go along with it. When it came to metrification of weights and measures our Government persecuted market traders only to be told, some years later, that there was nothing actually illegal about what they were doing and that it was all down to a misinterpretation.

Is this happening again?

Last year, I believe, we elected six MEPs in the South West to fight for us in Europe: three Conservatives; one Lib Dem; and two members of the UK Independence Party. Considering this level of representation it is, therefore, amazing that not one of them has been asked for an opinion on the Tropicana situation.

Are we being spun a yarn by a local authority who is not interested in getting on with it? Or is it, indeed, some EU legislation that cannot be bypassed? I would like to know because if the latter is true then North Somerset Council is attracting completely unfair negative comments whereas, if the former is true, then surely our European representatives can set the record straight before the tendering process gets into its stride and, perhaps, we can move forward with Plan 'A'.

I perceive that North Somerset finds itself all too often in a can't do anything right situation. In many cases this may be justified but at this moment in time I am completely unclear as to who is to blame and would be very interested in finding out more before I jump to any conclusions.

SEAN MILLER

South Road

Weston